It's not like when we were young

[peterbirks]

When I was 13 I was a paperboy for a year. As some of you know, the South London near the Oval where I grew up was a mainly working-class area in those days, although the new gentry had begun to move into Fentiman Raod to convert the houses into the multi-million-pound residences that they are today.

But, well, things were safer then. Ahh, I know what you are saying. It's like the "weren't the summers hotter when we were young?" line. Our memories are tainted.

But, well, the newsagent's where I did my paper round was called Jimmy's. Jimmy (a one-time boxer) was still alive in those days. Today it's run by an Asian couple, but it's still called Jimmy's. It's right opposite my dentist and Handforth Road, where I was brought up.



I was watching the London news last night and Jimmy's appeared on the TV screen. It had been the shop next door to a fire-bombing that took place during the middle of the day.






Now, my memory might be tainted, but I'm sure we didn't have that kind of thing when I was young.

Comments

You can't step twice in the same river

[(Anonymous)]

When I was 13 we lived in Ikeja, Nigeria. Up to independence in 1960 it had been a quiet European Residential Area adjoining the airport. By 1967 it hadn't changed very much. But the last time I was there, briefly in 1975, it had already changed a lot. By now it's a city; I probably wouldn't find anything recognizable left.

And Nigeria as a whole is certainly more dangerous now than it was then.

-- Jonathan